Canada should prioritise chem feeds - association

11 September 2006 19:16[Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--?xml:namespace>Canada must prioritise access to chemical feedstocks to ensure that chemical production can prosper, the Canadian Chemical Producers Association (CCPA) said on Monday.

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“Federal and provincial governments must recognise the importance of energy and feedstock to the viability of chemicals manufacturing in Canada,” Michael Bourque, Ottawa-based CCPA spokesman said in an interview.

Bourque was speaking with reference to Dow Chemical’s announcement to close all its plants at the Sarnia petrochemicals hub in Ontario by the end of 2008 due to lack of feedstock there following the suspension of ethylene shipments on the Cochin pipeline. The Dow closures demonstrate the importance of access to feedstocks for Canada’s chemicals industry, he said.

Bourque said that CCPA is urging, in particular, that the proposed Mackenzie Delta natural gas pipeline be routed through Alberta’s existing pipeline hub so that ethane can be stripped out of the gas in Alberta for upgrading into chemicals, instead of the gas simply being shipped directly to Chicago and other points south.

Canada’s petrochemicals industry is looking to the planned 760-mile Mackenzie pipeline, and a natural gas pipeline project from Alaska's North Slope,to provide sufficient ethane and other natural gas liquids (NGL) feedstock to expand and build new plants, particularly in Alberta.